Danny Coremans from Daco did a fantastic thing with this kit - for those who prefer glazed windows to decals, he had the inside of the fuselage molded with a template to cut out the cabin windows. I thanked him several times in my mind for that. How clever and kind! So I took a sharp chisel and carved out the windows.
In order not to be completely empty behind the transparent cockpit windows, I made a dashboard and pilot seats. I was making an airliner in 1/144 for the first time and with hindsight I realized that the seats are much bigger than they should be. But hopefully then it won't be distracting and at the same time there will be "something" behind the cockpit windows.
Control layer of surfacer applied to the sanded door. The Daco Skyline model has this door higher than the original, so it was necessary to use a putty.
A pilot checklist is already on the dashboard.
Blocker doors in the NACA cooling air intake are now installed in the fully extended position. I made them from a leftover frame from a PE part.
The landing gear wells are painted and wheathered.
The PE part from the Daco Skyline set was used to protect the engine pylon from hot jet exhausts. According to the original, I have emphasized the engraving and the division of the individual plates.
Static strips are installed on the radome. I made them from thin wire. The mouldings did show them, but not ideally. And, of course, they were not at all at the junction of the two fuselage halves. With hindsight I can say that they should have been thinner. But I won't redo them.
Here I made this Boeing into a convertible because I decided to additionally glaze the passenger windows with clear resin. I originally thought I would do it with clear decal film, but I was becoming more and more doubtful. So I made this rather drastic intervention...
And here back after the operation codenamed "Convertible". 🙂
I also added sunshades to the windows - one fully rolled down and one partially. I am satisfied with the result.
I let the paint cure well and remove minor surface imperfections. I will need to add more white as the grey surfacer is still showing through slightly.
I did the cockpit. It's not final yet, but it's been a lot of work. When I was peeling off the masking tape, part of the surfacer with the white paint came off. I probably didn't degrease the surface enough... I had to fix it and was glad I did it before I would airbrush orange paint or even apply decals. I also found that some dust and dirt had gotten into the cockpit. You can't see it in the photo now, but there are some dust crumbs wandering around and it's disturbing. Next time I need to be much more consistent in sealing it before closing the fuselage.
Livery is painted. Now I have to do the underside of the wings (Boeing grey), leading edges and then a lot of decal work. I'd like to glue the engines on near the end.
Towards the end of 2017 I started a project to build Boeing 737-500 Smart Wings by Daco Skyline. My basic impetus was the successful completion of the same aircraft in 1:200 scale and the desire to try the same thing in a larger scale. And to what extent I can improve the level of detail, execution and also the fidelity to the original. The work is progressing rather slowly due to my work commitments and sometimes occasional laziness. But it seems that I could crawl towards the goal.
